for the retail stuff I think Lance Roberts is good. he has a free newsletter. i used to listen to a few podcasts like financial sense and king world news as well. gold seek radio is pretty good as is the keiser report on RT/ youtube

Do the math, that would average roughly an annual interest of 8.5%. It's hardly going to make you a millionaire. ::)

3800% gain... in 44 years. :D

My point is that gold is a stable store of wealth. It's going much higher in the near future. Those green rectangles in your wallet (or electrons in a bank account) are constantly being devalued and they buy less goods and services every year. ALL fiat currencies eventually fail.

Like I said above, timing is important. NOW is the time for gold and silver. Stocks and RE are a hyper bubble. It'll be some fun when those bubbles pop.

If you want the best advice out there I'd seek out Vince goodrum. He's sooo smart. He saved $500 on a washing mashing. His other great investments include bee pollen and a double wide trailer. I believe he might even have fake credentials as a financial advisor.

My point is that gold is a stable store of wealth. It's going much higher in the near future. Those green rectangles in your wallet (or electrons in a bank account) are constantly being devalued and they buy less goods and services every year. ALL fiat currencies eventually fail.

Like I said above, timing is important. NOW is the time for gold and silver. Stocks and RE are a hyper bubble. It'll be some fun when those bubbles pop.

Gold has no value. It can't be valued. It produces no yield and yield is really the only way to reliably value an asset. In fact gold has a negative yield as it costs money to store it, guard it, transport it etc.

Trust me of its the end of the world a shiney nugget will be worth nothing compared to say an apple, a banana or some fresh drinking water ...

Gold has no value. It can't be valued. It produces no yield and yield is really the only way to reliably value an asset. In fact gold has a negative yield as it costs money to store it, guard it, transport it etc.

Trust me of its the end of the world a shiney nugget will be worth nothing compared to say an apple, a banana or some fresh drinking water ...

My point is that gold is a stable store of wealth. It's going much higher in the near future. Those green rectangles in your wallet (or electrons in a bank account) are constantly being devalued and they buy less goods and services every year. ALL fiat currencies eventually fail.

Like I said above, timing is important. NOW is the time for gold and silver. Stocks and RE are a hyper bubble. It'll be some fun when those bubbles pop.

not really. If you bought gold in 2012 you would still have lost money today:

Gold is great if you can time the "flight to quality" aspect of it. Since nobody can time the market, it's easy to say buy gold AFTER this large move. If you want to go ahead and invest in gold when it's flirting with its 2 year highs, go ahead, but as a buy and hold strategy for the stereotypical inactive investor, you're better off throwing your money in the SPY or some low cost index funds and adding to it over time if you're not watching the monitors everyday like a getbigger in Dubai, India.

not really. If you bought gold in 2012 you would still have lost money today:

(https://s31.postimg.org/xm2icdzsr/ww2.jpg)

And if you bought in 1999 when gold price was $250 ish? Timing is important. Derivatives market is going to implode and a majority of the banks out there today will not exist in a few years. It will make what happened with Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns look like a picnic.

Over long periods of time as wealth storage and inflation protection, physical gold (and silver)wins. No counterparty risk like with paper assets either. It's a no brainer.

When the S&P gets obliterated again down around the 600 level, (hopefully we all won't be fucked back to the stone age), that will be the time to start buying stocks.

Gold is great if you can time the "flight to quality" aspect of it. Since nobody can time the market, it's easy to say buy gold AFTER this large move. If you want to go ahead and invest in gold when it's flirting with its 2 year highs, go ahead, but as a buy and hold strategy for the stereotypical inactive investor, you're better off throwing your money in the SPY or some low cost index funds and adding to it over time if you're not watching the monitors everyday like a getbigger in Dubai, India.

And if you bought in 1999 when gold price was $250 ish? Timing is important. Derivatives market is going to implode and a majority of the banks out there today will not exist in a few years. It will make what happened with Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns look like a picnic.

Over long periods of time as wealth storage and inflation protection, physical gold (and silver)wins. No counterparty risk like with paper assets either. It's a no brainer.

When the S&P gets obliterated again down around the 600 level, (hopefully we all won't be fucked back to the stone age), that will be the time to start buying stocks.

And if you bought in 1999 when gold price was $250 ish? Timing is important. Derivatives market is going to implode and a majority of the banks out there today will not exist in a few years. It will make what happened with Lehman Bros. and Bear Stearns look like a picnic.

Over long periods of time as wealth storage and inflation protection, physical gold (and silver)wins. No counterparty risk like with paper assets either. It's a no brainer.

When the S&P gets obliterated again down around the 600 level, (hopefully we all won't be fucked back to the stone age), that will be the time to start buying stocks.

I don't disagree with you, but do you have any sources for your opinions about the derivatives market?

Interesting reading and watching. A little advise from years of experience - derivatives are basically a suckers game - she's an incredibly rigged market in most cases and you are basically betting against the house (the house that has all the resources to destroy you). I traded the broader indexes during 1999-2001 and made some serious dosh and also lost some very large amounts. Watched friends of mine lose everything literally in a few hours (I'm talking amounts of 2 million +). Having said that it was an incredible ride - I learned alot about myself during those times - almost bankrupted twice. But you live and learn. If you are still reasonably young and have the potential to ride things out and can afford to lose big when the time comes then I reckon you should give it a go. But you need to be able to learn from it - I mean really learn from it. I found I got screwed - not just because of my own actions or inactions but equally because my own brokers often would manipulate and screw me in behind the facade of working for me. Also I learned, often the hard way, that when you are not entirely certain of what you are doing (ie: your belief in your own talents wains) you open yourself to incredible vulnerability to the whims of others (believe me it is subtle and incredibly costly). I have many stories about the one that got away but on balance looking back I would change anything because it taught me alot - stuff that I could never learn from reading books etc or not actually physically being in the market and totally exposed. I learned, deep down I am too emotional to be a successful short term trader but if I hadn't learned that I wouldn't be where I am today and would probably have lost a lot more over the years. Would I trade the index futures again - most probably - but I'm not crazy enough to go full on - I'd trade options on the futures and limit my exposure to margin that way. Have a wife and house and family now so its not just all about me if I was to fail. But I tell you what - this market is starting to look ripe for interesting turn - mmmm....taking me back all those years...we shall see.

Forgot what I was intentding to say - two places I would recommend absorbing as much information from now especially if I was much younger - read and understand Warren Buffet's investing philosophy and also someone like Marc Faber. Put the bulk of your money into long term sensible risk adverse holds based on the former and seek out true contrarian plays based on the latter - where you can limit yourself to only small plays with minimal risk because the amount you may lose is only a fraction of your portfolio but if you get it right the rewards can be stratospheric especially if your enter the market at a point where you genuinely believe it is near the tipping point (which isn't that hard to determine if you learn the lessons of Dow theory etc). The broader markets are much easier to guage than individual stocks or packets of stocks.

Oh and one more thing - if yospend time working up a reasonable and tested investing strategy - ie: one that your have paper traded over a significant time frame (at least historically) DON'T deviate from it. Trust it and stick with it no matter whatever anyone else says. The biggest mistake you will make is breaking your own godamn rules. If your rules worked 90% of the time when you paper traded they will work 90% of thereabouts when you are actually in the market. But if you compromise, even slightly because you get jittery and seek advice of others you will almost invariably lose out. The reason I say this is because I would estimate that I would have traded some 3000-4000 times over my life and I would not be lying to say that all my winning trades were only when I followed my own advice to the letter - my losing trades were all the result of either my own rules not working (usually as the result of false timing signals - getting in too early or too late or out too early or too late or averaging down or some such other stupidity) but the bulk of bad trades were because I'd either actively seek advise of someone else or passively engage in unsolicited ramblings of others (who were probably doing worse than me but because I was emotional I let myself be swayed).Ie: trust in no one but yourself.

Oh and one more thing - if yospend time working up a reasonable and tested investing strategy - ie: one that your have paper traded over a significant time frame (at least historically) DON'T deviate from it. Trust it and stick with it no matter whatever anyone else says. The biggest mistake you will make is breaking your own godamn rules. If your rules worked 90% of the time when you paper traded they will work 90% of thereabouts when you are actually in the market. But if you compromise, even slightly because you get jittery and seek advice of others you will almost invariably lose out. The reason I say this is because I would estimate that I would have traded some 3000-4000 times over my life and I would not be lying to say that all my winning trades were only when I followed my own advice to the letter - my losing trades were all the result of either my own rules not working (usually as the result of false timing signals - getting in too early or too late or out too early or too late or averaging down or some such other stupidity) but the bulk of bad trades were because I'd either actively seek advise of someone else or passively engage in unsolicited ramblings of others (who were probably doing worse than me but because I was emotional I let myself be swayed).Ie: trust in no one but yourself.

Basically a handpicked selection of fairly basic technical indicators. Over the years I modified these as I found that they would become less reliable in range bound markets. What I found was that chart trading, in my experience, relies heavily on using the right sets and applications of indicators in the right market conditions. Took me a long time to get this - was always looking for the silver bullet - a set of indicators that would work in all conditions. Because of that 'holy grail' apporach I got burned severely - often repeatedly making the same mistake again and again but not really understanding why. My strategy, if I can call it that, really was about doing what I found emotionally counterintuitive and sticking to it. Took me along time to make sense of things - I'm not a smart guy by any stretch and its been years since I have traded actively but looking to may be get back in so just starting to refamiliarise myself.

Hence my advice for what it is worth - work things out yourself and then once you are satisfied you have got the best possible scenario (thanks Mr Piana) apply it and only trust in what you have done - nothing else.There are heaps of technical indicators that I have found now, in the last few days that looks mightily impressive but I have absolutely no idea how they work. My basic rule of thumb is if I can't understand it then I don't look at it - too much like witchcraft ;D

Basically a handpicked selection of fairly basic technical indicators. Over the years I modified these as I found that they would become less reliable in range bound markets. What I found was that chart trading, in my experience, relies heavily on using the right sets and applications of indicators in the right market conditions. Took me a long time to get this - was always looking for the silver bullet - a set of indicators that would work in all conditions. Because of that 'holy grail' apporach I got burned severely - often repeatedly making the same mistake again and again but not really understanding why. My strategy, if I can call it that, really was about doing what I found emotionally counterintuitive and sticking to it. Took me along time to make sense of things - I'm not a smart guy by any stretch and its been years since I have traded actively but looking to may be get back in so just starting to refamiliarise myself.

As I said before I would only ever 'invest' in shorting a market if I was 100% I was close to a tipping point. I have done it twice - the first time in 1999 and then in 2000. However whilst doing well in 2000 (I think it was 2000) I didn't take into account Greenspans intervention when I think he slashed interest rates and I watched a significant amount of paper profit vanish in seconds. But as said the bulk of my trading was at that time was put options of futures contracts. I did actively trade some futures but didn't fair too well in the end.

Wouldn't pidgeon hole myself either way - but back in the day I would guess I would be a stock picker and only ever shorting the broader market. I lie - now that I think about it I did use to short a number of big name Australian stocks but found that the market was severely open to manipulation - not the liquidity that I guess you have in the US.

PS:have never traded physical gold or silver - but did in extension by trading explorer stock etc. Liked the idea of it but don't really understand that market. Had a 'friend' who did - was the nearest thing to a real Gordon Gecko i have ever personally witnessed. All he ever talked about for three years - gold and silver - amazing chartist - used to come in with these A3 hand drawn things and convinced alot of peeps to invest on his analysis. But in the end alot of people lost a lot of money because of that.

Don't have to worry about whether or not the building has a big enough sink fund & is collecting enough to cover stuff like elevators, power sub stations, pools, etc.

I don't do any renos, you can make good money doing that but I'm a "slow & steady" kinda guy, so I aim to buy 3-4br family homes within 2km of a good school and 10-15km of a major metropolitan area or CBD.

Rental yield should be around 5.5-6% of purchase price pre-expenses. e.g a $400,000 place should rent for $24,000 pa / $2,000 month / $500 week

My rough long term yearly expenses work out to be:

Property Manager, $1,200 - $1,400 pa Maintenance, $200 - $1,500 pa. At a minimum I get stuff like air conditioners, gutters & smoke alarms checked yearly. preventative maintenance is a great way to avoid long term big $$ repairs & its all deductible anyway.. insurance, $1,400 pa (I have both property & landlords insurance.. e.g. if a tenant fucks the place, that's great news for me as i still get paid rent & the insurance company pays to renovate my property, woohoo! 99% of the investor sob stories are idiots who don't have insurance.)

So as a typical example: Purchase price: $400,000. I'm not going to do the break down of year 1 acquisition fees (stamp duty + conveyancing/legal) Lets say my total costs were $15,000 to buy. as per below, 20% cash down = $80,000 so we're talking about a $95,000 purchase price.

Loan 80% lvr (20% deposit) = $320,00 loan. I borrow always "interest only" & then put the cash into an offset account against the loan (I can explain how offset accounts work, but basically it means I can pay down the loan into a flexible account that means I don't need the bank's permission to pull all the $$ out and into another prop). Currently I pay around 4.2% as I have $1m+ in loans. so on this prop, would be $13,440 a year

Profit: (rental income) $26kpa. I work on a 50 week per year occupancy, my actual long term average is more like 51.something, so I'd calculate this as $25,000

Depreciation of fittings and fixtures - not sure if this is something you can do in the states, but in Aus, stuff like dishwashers, carpet, paint, etc all have a reasonable lifespan (carpet is 7 years.. nobody replaces carpet every 7 years..) & you can depreciate them on your tax. for a $400k place, I'd expect $3,500 a year.

So the result is: $7,960 Profit pre-tax. Without boring you with the lengthy math on my tax, the end result is I lose about another $1,450 of that in tax... Year 1 would actually be better than that because my $15k costs are 100% deductible, so as 32.5% tax bracket, I get $4,875 of that back, but moving on..

= $6,510 cash in my pocket.

Now you're probably thinking "johnau, you threw down $95,000 to get $6,510 after tax profit, that's shit. your after expenses & taxes rental yield is 1.6%"

Here's the thing though...

Rental values go up. I've never worked out what my long term growth is here, but I have places I've paid $200k for a decade plus ago that started out at $200 week ($800 month) now pulling in $500+ a week ($2k+ a month).

Capital gains. My long term average for capital gains is 2.5% per annum. Which sounds shit.. until you do the math and realise that to get the same result as 2.5% on $400k, over 10 years, that original $95k would have to have returned roughly 7.9%pa.. Also ignoring that I've made about $65,100 in after tax income over that 10 year period too.

What I'm now doing with my portfolio is basically the Warren Buffett "never sell" approach & I chip in bugger all of my own money anymore. The first few properties are hard. Finding say, $380,000 to buy 4 places ($1.6m portfolio) is no easy feat, but then you sit on them for 10 years & now you've got a $2,053,000 portfolio... At this stage you could do a re-draw on your loans, buy another 4 places & have a $3.6m portfolio giving you $52,000+ a year in convenient fortnightly installments & appreciating at around $91,000 a year, ensuring that you'll have a nice nest egg to leave the kids.. The alternative approach for people who hate dealing banks is to say.. Buy 10, sit on them for 15 years, sell all 10 for say around $4.8m after expenses ($350k ish in tax & expenses.. haven't done the exact math), pay back the bank their $3.2m, with the remaining $1.6m, buy 4x new $400k places with cash, collect $100kpa in rent, minus management, maint & insurance = around $85,000 pa forever & rent should track inflation.. Personally I wouldn't do that as you end up paying a bunch of unnecessary tax, but I see loans as numbers on a spreadsheet vs for a lot of people, having $0 in bank debt has a solid "sleep at night factor" to lower their stress.

Getting the initial deposits is a bitch. Once you've got 4-5 places, you should find that the rental cash flow + ability to do a refinance every 5-10 years funds all your future acquisitions.. Put it this way, if you've got 0 props, saving $95k = pain in the ass.

if you've got 4 props.. every 3 years you should've made around $125k in capital gains + $78,000 in after tax "cash in your bank" rental profits... that funds purchase 5 & 6 + gives you $13k to take the kids on a family holiday... 3 years later you've put in another $0 & you've got $196k in capital gains + $156k in rent = that funds buying property 7, 8 & 9 + buy yourself a $50k BMW + take the family on a $17,000 holiday.. The vast majority of people never manage to perform the feat of saving up their $95,000 3-4x in a row to start the snowball... That's where 99% of people fail at prop investing, they either can't or wont ever manage that... but keep in mind it gets easier every time once you've got more bringing in $$.

Then it just becomes a decision about what your magic number is (how many props you want/how much $$ you want in retirement + how much time you've got..) then sit back and wait.

It doesn't & his 400k POS house is now worth 340 but he'll take 300 since it's better than he'll get at a bank auction. Everybody knows it, so next month he'll get some sub-300 offers. The arse is just barely not falling out of the Australian market due to 1) Chinese investment and 2) banks that don't want to take their medicine.

Suits me. I love a bargain. Let the river of blood in the street flow.

It doesn't & his 400k POS house is now worth 340 but he'll take 300 since it's better than he'll get at a bank auction. Everybody knows it, so next month he'll get some sub-300 offers. The arse is just barely not falling out of the Australian market due to 1) Chinese investment and 2) banks that don't want to take their medicine.

Suits me. I love a bargain. Let the river of blood in the street flow.

Don't have to worry about whether or not the building has a big enough sink fund & is collecting enough to cover stuff like elevators, power sub stations, pools, etc.

I don't do any renos, you can make good money doing that but I'm a "slow & steady" kinda guy, so I aim to buy 3-4br family homes within 2km of a good school and 10-15km of a major metropolitan area or CBD.

Rental yield should be around 5.5-6% of purchase price pre-expenses. e.g a $400,000 place should rent for $24,000 pa / $2,000 month / $500 week

My rough long term yearly expenses work out to be:

Property Manager, $1,200 - $1,400 pa Maintenance, $200 - $1,500 pa. At a minimum I get stuff like air conditioners, gutters & smoke alarms checked yearly. preventative maintenance is a great way to avoid long term big $$ repairs & its all deductible anyway.. insurance, $1,400 pa (I have both property & landlords insurance.. e.g. if a tenant fucks the place, that's great news for me as i still get paid rent & the insurance company pays to renovate my property, woohoo! 99% of the investor sob stories are idiots who don't have insurance.)

So as a typical example: Purchase price: $400,000. I'm not going to do the break down of year 1 acquisition fees (stamp duty + conveyancing/legal) Lets say my total costs were $15,000 to buy. as per below, 20% cash down = $80,000 so we're talking about a $95,000 purchase price.

Loan 80% lvr (20% deposit) = $320,00 loan. I borrow always "interest only" & then put the cash into an offset account against the loan (I can explain how offset accounts work, but basically it means I can pay down the loan into a flexible account that means I don't need the bank's permission to pull all the $$ out and into another prop). Currently I pay around 4.2% as I have $1m+ in loans. so on this prop, would be $13,440 a year

Profit: (rental income) $26kpa. I work on a 50 week per year occupancy, my actual long term average is more like 51.something, so I'd calculate this as $25,000

Depreciation of fittings and fixtures - not sure if this is something you can do in the states, but in Aus, stuff like dishwashers, carpet, paint, etc all have a reasonable lifespan (carpet is 7 years.. nobody replaces carpet every 7 years..) & you can depreciate them on your tax. for a $400k place, I'd expect $3,500 a year.

So the result is: $7,960 Profit pre-tax. Without boring you with the lengthy math on my tax, the end result is I lose about another $1,450 of that in tax... Year 1 would actually be better than that because my $15k costs are 100% deductible, so as 32.5% tax bracket, I get $4,875 of that back, but moving on..

= $6,510 cash in my pocket.

Now you're probably thinking "johnau, you threw down $95,000 to get $6,510 after tax profit, that's shit. your after expenses & taxes rental yield is 1.6%"

Here's the thing though...

Rental values go up. I've never worked out what my long term growth is here, but I have places I've paid $200k for a decade plus ago that started out at $200 week ($800 month) now pulling in $500+ a week ($2k+ a month).

Capital gains. My long term average for capital gains is 2.5% per annum. Which sounds shit.. until you do the math and realise that to get the same result as 2.5% on $400k, over 10 years, that original $95k would have to have returned roughly 7.9%pa.. Also ignoring that I've made about $65,100 in after tax income over that 10 year period too.

What I'm now doing with my portfolio is basically the Warren Buffett "never sell" approach & I chip in bugger all of my own money anymore. The first few properties are hard. Finding say, $380,000 to buy 4 places ($1.6m portfolio) is no easy feat, but then you sit on them for 10 years & now you've got a $2,053,000 portfolio... At this stage you could do a re-draw on your loans, buy another 4 places & have a $3.6m portfolio giving you $52,000+ a year in convenient fortnightly installments & appreciating at around $91,000 a year, ensuring that you'll have a nice nest egg to leave the kids.. The alternative approach for people who hate dealing banks is to say.. Buy 10, sit on them for 15 years, sell all 10 for say around $4.8m after expenses ($350k ish in tax & expenses.. haven't done the exact math), pay back the bank their $3.2m, with the remaining $1.6m, buy 4x new $400k places with cash, collect $100kpa in rent, minus management, maint & insurance = around $85,000 pa forever & rent should track inflation.. Personally I wouldn't do that as you end up paying a bunch of unnecessary tax, but I see loans as numbers on a spreadsheet vs for a lot of people, having $0 in bank debt has a solid "sleep at night factor" to lower their stress.

Getting the initial deposits is a bitch. Once you've got 4-5 places, you should find that the rental cash flow + ability to do a refinance every 5-10 years funds all your future acquisitions.. Put it this way, if you've got 0 props, saving $95k = pain in the ass.

if you've got 4 props.. every 3 years you should've made around $125k in capital gains + $78,000 in after tax "cash in your bank" rental profits... that funds purchase 5 & 6 + gives you $13k to take the kids on a family holiday... 3 years later you've put in another $0 & you've got $196k in capital gains + $156k in rent = that funds buying property 7, 8 & 9 + buy yourself a $50k BMW + take the family on a $17,000 holiday.. The vast majority of people never manage to perform the feat of saving up their $95,000 3-4x in a row to start the snowball... That's where 99% of people fail at prop investing, they either can't or wont ever manage that... but keep in mind it gets easier every time once you've got more bringing in $$.

Then it just becomes a decision about what your magic number is (how many props you want/how much $$ you want in retirement + how much time you've got..) then sit back and wait.

No, thankfully. I'm not a 'negative gearing' guy. Negative gearing is the term given to losing money every month, on purpose, so that you can write off the loss as a tax deduction. I never really understood how to write off the loss since if you're not making any money then tax liability would already be zero. I guess they mean it's deduced against assessable income from something that actually earns money, like a job. Or tallying up all the lost money and deducting against the later capital gain. Kind of like tying a stone to a balloon so that you can own the stone.

Anywho, this is the logic and how pretty much every rental property works here. The guarantee being that it's ok to lose money since you're going to cash in big when you finally sell it since real estate only ever goes up.

If I rent a place out it'll be one that I build myself for a $50k construction cost on a block I buy outright for $50k. I don't subscribe to the debt now/profit later investment model and I don't have the stomach for it. When I buy something I like it to be from a bleeding, drowning man who needs to be rid of it. It was a good strategy with my machinery so I'll do the same with property.

Not exactly a complicated smoke & mirrors approach that conjures money out of thin air like some people claim to be able to do, but I'd rather be effective than sophisticated. Imo, how money gets generated from an investment should be immediately clear and obvious. So much so that it's boring. The last thing investing should be is exciting. For some reason, people enjoy getting embroiled in wildly complex financial schemes and seem to think that the more complicated something is, the greater the can't-miss profit is going to be. They love talking about 'how it works.' If how it works needs explanation then it's probably not somewhere you should put your hard earned. But wtf do I know.

Gold and silver, I've been saying it for years....PHYSICAL. Not some bullshit on a piece of paper that will mean nothing when, not if this house of cards falls.

And physical will do what?

You do realise they are allowed.to create virtual gold/silver in the warehouses yeah?

That's how they solved the threat of collapse years ago when I was.doing my.silver trades.

Gold was close to 1800 and I bought silver at 26 and sold at 44 just before it fell.

Hasn't been.back since and each time the theory says it should spike instead they get beat down because the allowed virtual metals in warehouses.

They have spent the last 7 years rigging markets and closing loopholes. Unfortunately It's not the same game anymore. Physical is not required because delivery cannot exceed supply, they just switch to virtual delivery. They already tried to collapse the comex and came fucking close.

That's what average Joe doesn't get, the banks/Got all play together meanwhile average Joe.is clinging to rules in the previous game under the delusion that somehow they are still in play.

I thought the same as you years ago and had physical silver so it's not like I haven't been down that road. I merely adapted to the game is all.

Physical Gold, in your possession, will be there for you when the markets, and the supply of "virtual" gold collapse. Gold isn't so much an investment, as it is insurance against a market, worst case scenario.

Physical Gold, in your possession, will be there for you when the markets, and the supply of "virtual" gold collapse. Gold isn't so much an investment, as it is insurance against a market, worst case scenario.

This. Prepers stock pile the shit in their basements and worry about the worst.

I get the argument, problem is if the monetary system.collapses the short term result is total chaos and everything devalues for average Joe. You can't use gold on the street because it has no value, can be faked, can't be weighed, it's useless.

WWII people swapped jewellery, diamonds, Gold for food and water. But diamonds are worth 2000/ct.... Nope, they are worth what the owner of the food says it's worth. This has been done before and history repeats. The rich with all the jewels and gold were instantly poor because in civilian life it's useless yet somehow people believe it's different now.....

The biggest trick is a monetary system is based on belief.... I believe the digits in my account are money. I believe he plastic notes in my wallet is money. Everybody else around me believes it. Go and grab your Gold bar and ask the same question. If everybody aggrees (which they won't), go one further an swap $100 gold for $100 cash and.see.who takes up the offer.... NO one will. Walk into a bank, give them 100/gold and exchange for a 100note, won't happen. Today its merely a store of.value, nothing more. See my point?

Money is belief. Livestock was once money. Grain was once money. Gold was once money. Coins and paper notes are money today.

Gold has value before a collapse, not after for average Joe . So the trick is to get out and buy whatever it is you need before be it land, food etc.

I think it is funny how mainstream media and investment advisors tell people not to invest know becauseo of brexit, and then you have people like George Soros who are making millions by:

- buying gold

- shorting Deutsche Bank

I guess the big players always have a trick up their sleeve :)

The big players still dumped their gold/silver before price corrections. They still buy and sell, none of this BS buy at any price I see people doing lol.

Then you have to ask yourself if you should adopt the same strategy as billionaires who don't tell you the whole truth. None of them buy at any price and hold which is the mantra average Joe repeats. They all Buy/sell to make profit today.

We had the same gold/silver mantra here..... Metals fell and property doubled. People got proper fucked following the whole dump property and buy metals gig. fact is you play with whatever is going to make money today.

The big players still dumped their gold/silver before price corrections. They still buy and sell, none of this BS buy at any price I see people doing lol.

Then you have to ask yourself if you should adopt the same strategy as billionaires who don't tell you the whole truth. None of them buy at any price and hold which is the mantra average Joe repeats. They all Buy/sell to make profit today.

We had the same gold/silver mantra here..... Metals fell and property doubled. People got proper fucked following the whole dump property and buy metals gig. fact is you play with whatever is going to make money today.

Billionaires hold gold too... don't kid yourself.

Again, it's all about timing. Look at what precious metals have done over the past week. Silver is up 40% just this year. You either have it, or you don't.

The day is coming when the US dollar and other fiat currencies will be worthless and precious metals will not be. Gold and silver are still relatively cheap. Prepare accordingly.

These advisors are basically traders who failed. They now live off fees, expenses and commissions of ignorant mongoloids who do not understand that the stock market is really a den of thieves in expensive suits.

Make sure to read the small print of your 401k, IRA or any fund you "invest" in... the fees and expenses are often outrageous.

That's a very smooth equity curve, apart from the not so happy end, prob a scalp trader.

automated forex trading is very dangerous. The british pound flash crash happened after I posted that graph you quoted. A lot of people lost money from that incident.I don't trade forex. It is simply not for me.

These advisors are basically traders who failed. They now live off fees, expenses and commissions of ignorant mongoloids who do not understand that the stock market is really a den of thieves in expensive suits.

Make sure to read the small print of your 401k, IRA or any fund you "invest" in... the fees and expenses are often outrageous.

only about 20% of active fund managers manage to beat the indexes in the long run. If you want to read about a brilliant active fund manager, then I suggest reading the book "The Big Short" by author Michael Lewis.

automated forex trading is very dangerous. The british pound flash crash happened after I posted that graph you quoted. A lot of people lost money from that incident.I don't trade forex. It is simply not for me.

Algo trading can be very risky, but it all depends on things like diversification and position sizing. Some forex brokers already warned their clients on beforehand about the possible Brexit, so it would be wise to turn off a system for at least a couple of hours.

Most forex clients lose their money in the mid- or long-term, simply because either their timing or their money management is poor, leverage can be a bitch...

And if you wait several days/weeks/months, TPTB/algos seem to push it back up. One day it will crash again, but this time it won't recover. Traders who play it right (i.e. shorts/put options) will probably not be able to cash in on them.

It's all just digital electrons on a computer screen. They don't really exist. Same goes for the cash in 401k's IRA's, pensions, bank accounts, etc. After the crash only tangible things will hold value, not the digital blips in some trading/bank account.

And if you wait several days/weeks/months, TPTB/algos seem to push it back up. One day it will crash again, but this time it won't recover. Traders who play it right (i.e. shorts/put options) will probably not be able to cash in on them.

It's all just digital electrons on a computer screen. They don't really exist. Same goes for the cash in 401k's IRA's, pensions, bank accounts, etc. After the crash only tangible things will hold value, not the digital blips in some trading/bank account.

We are living in very precipitous times. Prepare accordingly.

I don't believe in "the crash". Do you seriously believe we can go through a bigger stock market crash than 2008? What would cause it?

- The US is $20 TRILLION in debt and it's going up (Odumbo added $10 of those trillion over the last 8 years).- The real unemployment rate is close to 25%, not 5%.- 90% of the jobs created over the last couple years have been part time service jobs that pay $7.25-$10/hr.- There are 48-50 million people using EBT cards.- 60% of people in the US have less than $1000 in their bank account.- Only 33% have more than $1000 in their 401k.- The US dollar is losing value rapidly (i.e. inflation). It buys less and less goods/services every year.- Food companies are continually shrinking their packaging sizes, but charging the same or more for their products ~aka~ "Shrinkflation"- The median income in the US is about $52,000... that is less than it was 15 years ago.

- The US is $20 TRILLION in debt and it's going up (Odumbo added $10 of those trillion over the last 8 years).- The real unemployment rate is close to 25%, not 5%.- 90% of the jobs created over the last couple years have been part time service jobs that pay $7.25-$10/hr.- There are 48-50 million people using EBT cards.- 60% of people in the US have less than $1000 in their bank account.- Only 33% have more than $1000 in their 401k.- The US dollar is losing value rapidly (i.e. inflation). It buys less and less goods/services every year.- Food companies are continually shrinking their packaging sizes, but charging the same or more for their products ~aka~ "Shrinkflation"- The median income in the US is about $52,000... that is less than it was 15 years ago.

No, but I believe* I've heard some parts of it during the following documentary (posted before on the Documentary thread)

BTW, over here the guy from that first video -Rishi Narang, who's one of the founders of a HFT firm- explains what's reality and what's fiction about the content of this book, https://chatwithtraders.com/ep-054-rishi-narang/ (I haven't heard it myself yet)

The nanosecond world of HFT is very fascinating, but the given information isn't that useful for a private investor since the whole HFT infrastructure alone is already a multi-million Dollar investment.

No, but I believe* I've heard some parts of it during the following documentary (posted before on the Documentary thread)

BTW, over here the guy from that first video -Rishi Narang, who's one of the founders of a HFT firm- explains what's reality and what's fiction about the content of this book, https://chatwithtraders.com/ep-054-rishi-narang/ (I haven't heard it myself yet)

The nanosecond world of HFT is very fascinating, but the given information isn't that useful for a private investor since the whole HFT infrastructure alone is already multi-million Dollar investment.

Flash Boys starts out describing the construction of Spread Networks' secretive new 827-mile cable running as straight as possible, through mountains and under rivers, from Chicago to New Jersey that would reduce the journey time for data from 17 to 13 milliseconds. This $300 million project was designed to connect the financial markets of Chicago and New York City where one could think front running might happen with a few millisecond advantage.

Fascinating... and the docu above also covers crazy latency tweaks like these.

My point is that gold is a stable store of wealth. It's going much higher in the near future. Those green rectangles in your wallet (or electrons in a bank account) are constantly being devalued and they buy less goods and services every year. ALL fiat currencies eventually fail.

Like I said above, timing is important. NOW is the time for gold and silver. Stocks and RE are a hyper bubble. It'll be some fun when those bubbles pop.

Gold is great if you can time the "flight to quality" aspect of it. Since nobody can time the market, it's easy to say buy gold AFTER this large move. If you want to go ahead and invest in gold when it's flirting with its 2 year highs, go ahead, but as a buy and hold strategy for the stereotypical inactive investor, you're better off throwing your money in the SPY or some low cost index funds and adding to it over time if you're not watching the monitors everyday like a getbigger in Dubai, India.

I hope no getbiggers invested in gold since that post. They'd currently be down 7.3% :D

(http://i67.tinypic.com/50h83c.jpg)

You are cherry picking the timing. This is a very long term investment, not short term trading.

I started buying gold when it was $300oz... silver when it was $5oz. I sold 50% of my silver holdings in 2011 when it hit $50. Since 2015 I've purchased back several thousand ounces. Silver is dirt cheap right now... very undervalued.

Precious metals are only real store of value and wealth... a 5000 year track record that cannot be denied. The sheeple will only come to realize this when the USD and global financial system implodes. It's inevitable. The stock market is the biggest bubble in history, but it would not surprise me if it continues to rise over the year, or several years. I hope it does, it gives me more time to accumulate real wealth.

When the shit finally does hit the fan water, food, ammo are going to be all the rage... much more than PMs.

You are cherry picking the timing. This is a very long term investment, not short term trading.

I started buying gold when it was $300oz... silver when it was $5oz. I sold 50% of my silver holdings in 2011 when it hit $50. Since 2015 I've purchased back several thousand ounces. Silver is dirt cheap right now... very undervalued.

Precious metals are only real store of value and wealth... a 5000 year track record that cannot be denied. The sheeple will only come to realize this when the USD and global financial system implodes. It's inevitable.

When the shit finally does hit the fan water, food, ammo are going to be all the rage... much more than PMs.

Prepare accordingly.

Nah we're going to be okay. You're sounding like one of those fear mongering gold commercials on the radio. Gold isn't looking too promising in the future considering Trump hates Yellen and the Fed. With every rate increase, gold will look less attractive. I'm not trying to cherry pick anything. Just giving a simple example of not being able to time the market. If I told you or anybody Trump was going to win the election, you would've bought tons of gold and shorted the equites till your hands bled. Anybody would have. Nobody can predict this market and you can't predict some catastrophe fabricated in your mind. Fear is always overstated. That's all I'm saying.

Nah we're going to be okay. You're sounding like one of those fear mongering gold commercials on the radio. Gold isn't looking too promising in the future considering Trump hates Yellen and the Fed. With every rate increase, gold will look less attractive. I'm not trying to cherry pick anything. Just giving a simple example of not being able to time the market. If I told you or anybody Trump was going to win the election, you would've bought tons of gold and shorted the equites till your hands bled. Nobody can predict this market and you can't predict some imaginary catastrophe. That's all I'm saying.

You sound exactly like the way people sounded in 1999 and 2006/7. I was warning people about the RE bubble in 2006. I lived in San Diego then and 95% of the people I mentioned this to laughed at me, even though I laid out exactly what was going on.

I am not fear mongering. Like I said previously, these irrational up moves could go for a long time. However, a stock market crash is long overdue. This time, the Fed will not be able to stop it. Sadly, people hardly ever notice when they are in a bubble.

You sound exactly like the way people sounded in 1999 and 2006/7. I was warning people about the RE bubble in 2006. I lived in San Diego then and 95% of the people I mentioned this to laughed at me, even though I laid out exactly what was going on.

I am not fear mongering. Like I said previously, these irrational up moves could go for a long time. However, a stock market crash is long overdue. This time, the Fed will not be able to stop it. Sadly, people hardly ever notice when they are in a bubble.

No, thankfully. I'm not a 'negative gearing' guy. Negative gearing is the term given to losing money every month, on purpose, so that you can write off the loss as a tax deduction. I never really understood how to write off the loss since if you're not making any money then tax liability would already be zero. I guess they mean it's deduced against assessable income from something that actually earns money, like a job. Or tallying up all the lost money and deducting against the later capital gain. Kind of like tying a stone to a balloon so that you can own the stone.

Anywho, this is the logic and how pretty much every rental property works here. The guarantee being that it's ok to lose money since you're going to cash in big when you finally sell it since real estate only ever goes up.

If I rent a place out it'll be one that I build myself for a $50k construction cost on a block I buy outright for $50k. I don't subscribe to the debt now/profit later investment model and I don't have the stomach for it. When I buy something I like it to be from a bleeding, drowning man who needs to be rid of it. It was a good strategy with my machinery so I'll do the same with property.

Not exactly a complicated smoke & mirrors approach that conjures money out of thin air like some people claim to be able to do, but I'd rather be effective than sophisticated. Imo, how money gets generated from an investment should be immediately clear and obvious. So much so that it's boring. The last thing investing should be is exciting. For some reason, people enjoy getting embroiled in wildly complex financial schemes and seem to think that the more complicated something is, the greater the can't-miss profit is going to be. They love talking about 'how it works.' If how it works needs explanation then it's probably not somewhere you should put your hard earned. But wtf do I know.

You are cherry picking the timing. This is a very long term investment, not short term trading.

I started buying gold when it was $300oz... silver when it was $5oz. I sold 50% of my silver holdings in 2011 when it hit $50. Since 2015 I've purchased back several thousand ounces. Silver is dirt cheap right now... very undervalued.

Precious metals are only real store of value and wealth... a 5000 year track record that cannot be denied. The sheeple will only come to realize this when the USD and global financial system implodes. It's inevitable. The stock market is the biggest bubble in history, but it would not surprise me if it continues to rise over the year, or several years. I hope it does, it gives me more time to accumulate real wealth.

When the shit finally does hit the fan water, food, ammo are going to be all the rage... much more than PMs.

Prepare accordingly.

Venezuela is having a economic/currency crisis and its stock market is outperforming gold massively.

The bolivar has lost 2.3 times it's value against the USD in that time.

So an inflation adjusted 1000% gain in stocks vs 61% gain in gold.

Yes, their stock market is up in nominal terms, but their currency (the Bolivar) is worthless -lol. Same thing happened in Zimbabwe... they were printing $100 Trillion (yes, $100 TRILLION) dollar notes in 2007... I own a few of them.

Morale of the story: Only gold and silver hold their value, not paper currency or paper investments. Fiat currencies ALWAYS fail... they lose value over time and eventually become worthless.

Fiat currencies ALWAYS fail... they lose value over time and eventually become worthless.

When the Federal Reserve took over the US currency, in 1913, the price of gold was $20 per ounce. Today gold closed at $1233.90 per ounce. This is monetary inflation, not to be confused with price inflation, that the Fed uses to obfuscate, what is happening, as they erode the value of the US Dollar.

Gold, and Silver, aren't really investments though. In reality they are insurance, for when everything else turns to shit.

Yes, their stock market is up in nominal terms, but their currency (the Bolivar) is worthless -lol. Same thing happened in Zimbabwe... they were printing $100 Trillion (yes, $100 TRILLION) dollar notes in 2007... I own a few of them.

Morale of the story: Only gold and silver hold their value, not paper currency or paper investments. Fiat currencies ALWAYS fail... they lose value over time and eventually become worthless.

Gold went from $20 in 1913 to $1233 today, a 61 times capital gain.Dow Jones index went from about 86 in 1913 to 18900 today, a 220 times capital gain, if you reinvested dividends, the return is 17,770 times!!!

You sound exactly like the way people sounded in 1999 and 2006/7. I was warning people about the RE bubble in 2006. I lived in San Diego then and 95% of the people I mentioned this to laughed at me, even though I laid out exactly what was going on.

I am not fear mongering. Like I said previously, these irrational up moves could go for a long time. However, a stock market crash is long overdue. This time, the Fed will not be able to stop it. Sadly, people hardly ever notice when they are in a bubble.

There is nothing to fear if one is prepared... I fear nothing.

Other than my IRA, I'm actually not long equities in my trading account. I'm also not living beyond my means. have a nice car that's paid off, own a house currently worth 125K more than I paid for it in 2013, and have no credit card debt. Im nothing like someone in their early 30s from 2007.

Gold went from $20 in 1913 to $1233 today, a 61 times capital gain.Dow Jones index went from about 86 in 1913 to 18900 today, a 220 times capital gain, if you reinvested dividends, the return is 17,770 times!!!

You're only looking at it in nominal terms. The USD has been severely devalued since 1913. In 1913 the dollar was worth a dollar (100 cents), now it's worth about 2 cents... get it?

Don't have to worry about whether or not the building has a big enough sink fund & is collecting enough to cover stuff like elevators, power sub stations, pools, etc.

I don't do any renos, you can make good money doing that but I'm a "slow & steady" kinda guy, so I aim to buy 3-4br family homes within 2km of a good school and 10-15km of a major metropolitan area or CBD.

Rental yield should be around 5.5-6% of purchase price pre-expenses. e.g a $400,000 place should rent for $24,000 pa / $2,000 month / $500 week

My rough long term yearly expenses work out to be:

Property Manager, $1,200 - $1,400 pa Maintenance, $200 - $1,500 pa. At a minimum I get stuff like air conditioners, gutters & smoke alarms checked yearly. preventative maintenance is a great way to avoid long term big $$ repairs & its all deductible anyway.. insurance, $1,400 pa (I have both property & landlords insurance.. e.g. if a tenant fucks the place, that's great news for me as i still get paid rent & the insurance company pays to renovate my property, woohoo! 99% of the investor sob stories are idiots who don't have insurance.)

So as a typical example: Purchase price: $400,000. I'm not going to do the break down of year 1 acquisition fees (stamp duty + conveyancing/legal) Lets say my total costs were $15,000 to buy. as per below, 20% cash down = $80,000 so we're talking about a $95,000 purchase price.

Loan 80% lvr (20% deposit) = $320,00 loan. I borrow always "interest only" & then put the cash into an offset account against the loan (I can explain how offset accounts work, but basically it means I can pay down the loan into a flexible account that means I don't need the bank's permission to pull all the $$ out and into another prop). Currently I pay around 4.2% as I have $1m+ in loans. so on this prop, would be $13,440 a year

Profit: (rental income) $26kpa. I work on a 50 week per year occupancy, my actual long term average is more like 51.something, so I'd calculate this as $25,000

Depreciation of fittings and fixtures - not sure if this is something you can do in the states, but in Aus, stuff like dishwashers, carpet, paint, etc all have a reasonable lifespan (carpet is 7 years.. nobody replaces carpet every 7 years..) & you can depreciate them on your tax. for a $400k place, I'd expect $3,500 a year.

So the result is: $7,960 Profit pre-tax. Without boring you with the lengthy math on my tax, the end result is I lose about another $1,450 of that in tax... Year 1 would actually be better than that because my $15k costs are 100% deductible, so as 32.5% tax bracket, I get $4,875 of that back, but moving on..

= $6,510 cash in my pocket.

Now you're probably thinking "johnau, you threw down $95,000 to get $6,510 after tax profit, that's shit. your after expenses & taxes rental yield is 1.6%"

Here's the thing though...

Rental values go up. I've never worked out what my long term growth is here, but I have places I've paid $200k for a decade plus ago that started out at $200 week ($800 month) now pulling in $500+ a week ($2k+ a month).

Capital gains. My long term average for capital gains is 2.5% per annum. Which sounds shit.. until you do the math and realise that to get the same result as 2.5% on $400k, over 10 years, that original $95k would have to have returned roughly 7.9%pa.. Also ignoring that I've made about $65,100 in after tax income over that 10 year period too.

What I'm now doing with my portfolio is basically the Warren Buffett "never sell" approach & I chip in bugger all of my own money anymore. The first few properties are hard. Finding say, $380,000 to buy 4 places ($1.6m portfolio) is no easy feat, but then you sit on them for 10 years & now you've got a $2,053,000 portfolio... At this stage you could do a re-draw on your loans, buy another 4 places & have a $3.6m portfolio giving you $52,000+ a year in convenient fortnightly installments & appreciating at around $91,000 a year, ensuring that you'll have a nice nest egg to leave the kids.. The alternative approach for people who hate dealing banks is to say.. Buy 10, sit on them for 15 years, sell all 10 for say around $4.8m after expenses ($350k ish in tax & expenses.. haven't done the exact math), pay back the bank their $3.2m, with the remaining $1.6m, buy 4x new $400k places with cash, collect $100kpa in rent, minus management, maint & insurance = around $85,000 pa forever & rent should track inflation.. Personally I wouldn't do that as you end up paying a bunch of unnecessary tax, but I see loans as numbers on a spreadsheet vs for a lot of people, having $0 in bank debt has a solid "sleep at night factor" to lower their stress.

Getting the initial deposits is a bitch. Once you've got 4-5 places, you should find that the rental cash flow + ability to do a refinance every 5-10 years funds all your future acquisitions.. Put it this way, if you've got 0 props, saving $95k = pain in the ass.

if you've got 4 props.. every 3 years you should've made around $125k in capital gains + $78,000 in after tax "cash in your bank" rental profits... that funds purchase 5 & 6 + gives you $13k to take the kids on a family holiday... 3 years later you've put in another $0 & you've got $196k in capital gains + $156k in rent = that funds buying property 7, 8 & 9 + buy yourself a $50k BMW + take the family on a $17,000 holiday.. The vast majority of people never manage to perform the feat of saving up their $95,000 3-4x in a row to start the snowball... That's where 99% of people fail at prop investing, they either can't or wont ever manage that... but keep in mind it gets easier every time once you've got more bringing in $$.

Then it just becomes a decision about what your magic number is (how many props you want/how much $$ you want in retirement + how much time you've got..) then sit back and wait.

Sydney and Melbourne in Australia are quite expensive for sure. The really big money next decade in Australia will be in Gold Coast Queensland property. At a high level the amount of growth and investment and infrastructure there planned is phenomenal. I would say land and property there will easily rise 15%pa for each year on average over the next decade. So very decent compounded gains to be made there if you buy now.

Trump's tax cuts, for investors and corporations, will spur the economy, and create more profit. Cutting out government regulations, will help too.

it wont make that much difference and rising interest rates would more than offset that. the more important factor is wages growing faster than gdp which will shrink margins significantly. trump is just transferring wealth to rich people with corporate tax cuts.

investment requires a profit opportunity, whether corp tax rates go up or down a few percent hardly makes a difference. the outlook is structurally low growth as baby boomers retire who will then impose themselves on state spending such as obamacare.

investment requires a profit opportunity, whether corp tax rates go up or down a few percent hardly makes a difference. the outlook is structurally low growth as baby boomers retire who will then impose themselves on state spending such as obamacare.

USA is probably the least regulated large developed market.

The chart is horseshit. Socialist nonsense. The USA has the highest corporate taxes on Earth now. That will change under President Trump. And, Obamacare is history! Won't cost the taxpayers anything any more.

The chart is horseshit. Socialist nonsense. The USA has the highest corporate taxes on Earth now. That will change under President Trump. And, Obamacare is history! Won't cost the taxpayers anything any more.

that is a CBO estimate chart. also trump already said he will not implement many campaign promises inc scrapping obamacare. you guys got rolled by trump who will work for the wealthiest americans.

I'm able to save about $10,000+ a month into my account after my living expenses, but I have a hell of a time not spending some of it, because I get bored and tempted to start new projects. For the start of the new year, I'm going to "make money" by just saving all of it from here on out.

Question is, is it best to just keep it in cash in the bank? I don't know anything about the market, gold or whatever.

Sydney and Melbourne in Australia are quite expensive for sure. The really big money next decade in Australia will be in Gold Coast Queensland property. At a high level the amount of growth and investment and infrastructure there planned is phenomenal. I would say land and property there will easily rise 15%pa for each year on average over the next decade. So very decent compounded gains to be made there if you buy now.

I haven't really looked into Goldy, but I can see where you are coming from. They'd be pumping cash for the Cth games hand over fist, too.

Mr. Anabolic, I'd like to let you know that I just got long gold this morning during the large down move. Needed a core position for my IRA, so I went with GLD although I usually like to use futures in my other margin account. Also sold OTM calls against the position since vol is decent in there. It's rallied since I bought it and the calls have also come in a little bit surprisingly. I'm not a chart guy, but it doesn't look pretty. Just seems oversold in such a short period of time.

Mr. Anabolic, I'd like to let you know that I just got long gold this morning during the large down move. Needed a core position for my IRA, so I went with GLD although I usually like to use futures in my other margin account. Also sold OTM calls against the position since vol is decent in there. It's rallied since I bought it and the calls have also come in a little bit surprisingly. I'm not a chart guy, but it doesn't look pretty. Just seems oversold in such a short period of time.

Mr. Anabolic, I'd like to let you know that I just got long gold this morning during the large down move. Needed a core position for my IRA, so I went with GLD although I usually like to use futures in my other margin account. Also sold OTM calls against the position since vol is decent in there. It's rallied since I bought it and the calls have also come in a little bit surprisingly. I'm not a chart guy, but it doesn't look pretty. Just seems oversold in such a short period of time.

Nice. However, I wouldn't be surprised if gold re-tested $1080 though. Silver has short term support at $16 and longer term support at $15. I do not do paper gold or silver, only physical. I buy more every time the price drops significantly. For me, precious metals are for l-o-n-g term wealth protection/storage, not for trading or quick profits.

Those who invest in them I.e. the individual lenders are not covered by the FSCS. Why would anyone take that risk when huge banks went under....small independent companies can go bust at any one point....mark my words there's a scandal waiting to happen here very soon.

I think it will take more than a recession for that to happen... has to be something big and/or unexpected. I was actively trading during the crash of 2008/2009. I made the largest amount of cash I've ever made (in 1 day) during those DOW 1000 point swing days. At that time however, most trading platforms were having problems and much slower response times.

I think it will take more than a recession for that to happen... has to be something big and/or unexpected. I was actively trading during the crash of 2008/2009. I made the largest amount of cash I've ever made (in 1 day) during those DOW 1000 point swing days. At that time however, most trading platforms were having problems and much slower response times.

remember that the P2P lending companies have few employees and few expenses, so it would take a lot for them to go bust.

They run on tight margins...people start to default and they have no buffer to absorb the hits. It nearly happened to one of the big lenders the name escapes me. The smaller ones are more likely to crumble

They run on tight margins...people start to default and they have no buffer to absorb the hits. It nearly happened to one of the big lenders the name escapes me. The smaller ones are more likely to crumble

Lending Club?

We are all in this topic to get wiser, and I don't want to disagree with you if good arguments are brought to light that will make me change my mind. :)

We are all in this topic to get wiser, and I don't want to disagree with you if good arguments are brought to light that will make me change my mind. :)

I'm not too familiar with how things go in the US...but here if the bank goes bust money invested up to a certain limit is covered by a compensation scheme which effectively insurance. P2p in the U.K. Are not part of that scheme so if one goes bust I'm likely to never see my money back.

But, as with all investing it is up to the inidividual to invest based on their risk appetite...but one rule everyone should embrace regardless of investing strategy is to diversify. Whether you like gold, oil, equities...futures...etc always diversify

if you look at a historical gold chart, it has some weird price moves sometimes. I don't own gold. Maybe I should?

For hedging? Yes, for money making, most people usually go elsewhere....if you look hystorically Gold is usually popular when markets are at their worst. But owning some gold is never a bad idea, it is after all the only true international currency.

why hasn't anyone suggested investing in property? it is one of the most reliable ways of investing and it will always pay itself. if you go for it the first thing to choose is the strategy. I’d say that Barcelona is probably the best option: it’s in the top 15 European property markets with really good prospects for investment, because being a popular destination it also has low interest rates and the demand exceeds the supply. another advantage is that apartments for sale in Barcelona (https://tranio.com/spain/catalonia/barcelona/apartments/) will definitely grow in price with the course of time. if you go for short term rentals you’ll get decent returns - about 5-7% yields. hiring a management company might be a bit of strain but it will help avoiding problems with finding new tenants and the expenses will be rewarded with higher occupancy rates anyway. i'd say that it's worth considering

It's a bubble, but as bubbles gain momentum, people become euphoric/irrational. Then, just when you think the market will never go down again, it pops. We're almost there. I predict the stock market bubble pops after Trump's inauguration. My prediction that gold and silver would go down was correct. I'm buying on the cheap with both hands. Silver is very undervalued and an incredible deal at current prices ($15-16).

It's a bubble, but as bubbles gain momentum, people become euphoric/irrational. Then, just when you think the market will never go down again, it pops. We're almost there. I predict the stock market bubble pops after Trump's inauguration. My prediction that gold and silver would go down was correct. I'm buying on the cheap with both hands. Silver is very undervalued and an incredible deal at current prices ($15-16).

The World’s Biggest Hedge Fund is Embedding Its Founder’s Brain in an Algorithm

"...As described by Wall Street Journal, the system would take input, including peer reviews and employee testing, and use them to assign employees to specific tasks and provide them with detailed instructions for approaches and time management. It would also guide hiring, firing, and promotions. The system’s development is being overseen by David Ferrucci, who formerly led the creation of IBM’s Watson—despite earlier reports that Ferrucci would be working on economic modeling."

If you start maxing out an IRA at 25 starting with nothing in it, you can expect to have ~ $1.5 mil by the time you're 60 - if you assume the same sort of returns we've seen in the broad markets in the last 50+ years.

If you also max out a 401k, you can expect to have well over $6 mil by that time, assuming current contribution limits on IRAs and 401ks.

Diversify. Most of us are not smart enough to pick 8-10 stocks that will average 20, 30, 40% a year over the next several decades like Buffett and Nelson Peltz have been.

Be wary of anyone telling you to put everything into 1-2 stocks or commodities, or to buy and sell everything in the same day and go to 100% cash at the end of the day every day... or to be anywhere near 100% short or 100% in cash or whatever because they think the dollar and all stocks and all bonds are going to be worthless tomorrow. The world is probably not going to get that bad in my lifetime - and if it does, I suspect my own lifespan will be quite short, and I will probably take many other lives before I die.

I've been using a site called betterment.comI'm trying to learn about investing Each week I put 25 dollars in my betterment accountI have 133 dollars invested and it says I have made $2.35. A 2.3% return.And I have .2 cents in dividends

I've been using a site called betterment.comI'm trying to learn about investing Each week I put 25 dollars in my betterment accountI have 133 dollars invested and it says I have made $2.35. A 2.3% return.And I have .2 cents in dividends

Should I keep doing this until I save 5k?

the stock market is quite risky right now. Look into Lending Club instead.

Wanna know how fucking good we have it here in the States? Friend of mine has been chewing my ear off with European stocks because he believes the Euro is about to go up again. One of his long positions was in a Spanish bank (POP/BPESF) that basically just got nationalized. Get this, after months of diffusing the fact that the bank had virtually no cash, the Spanish Minister of the Economy, the ECB as well as Spain Central Bank auditors; just dropped the hammer on everyone at 1AM last night, triggering a banking-system safety mechanism/protocol by which they effectively took control of the bank for about 2 minutes and then carried out a highest-bidder "auction," which ended in about 2 seconds with the sale of the bank to another Spanish bank (Banco Santander-SAN) for the symbolic price of €1. All in the name of banking-system preservation.

My friend wakes up this morning only to find out that the 450,000 shares he bought for $ 1 back in November are worth $0.00. Bank was worth $ 35.00 back in 2007.

The whole episode is such a farce that the buying bank, which "supposedly" did everyone the favor of buying a decrepit bank with 40 billion in stale real estate assets (a business-bursting inheritance, or so they claimed,) and are about to hit SAN shareholders with a capital expansion, went up 2%.

Wanna know how fucking good we have it here in the States? Friend of mine has been chewing my ear off with European stocks because he believes the Euro is about to go up again. One of his long positions was in a Spanish bank (POP/BPESF) that basically just got nationalized. Get this, after months of diffusing the fact that the bank had virtually no cash, the Spanish Minister of the Economy, the ECB as well as Spain Central Bank auditors; just dropped the hammer on everyone at 1AM last night, triggering a banking-system safety mechanism/protocol by which they effectively took control of the bank for about 2 minutes and then carried out a highest-bidder "auction," which ended in about 2 seconds with the sale of the bank to another Spanish bank (Banco Santander-SAN) for the symbolic price of €1. All in the name of banking-system preservation.

My friend wakes up this morning only to find out that the 450,000 shares he bought for $ 1 back in November are worth $0.00. Bank was worth $ 35.00 back in 2007.

The whole episode is such a farce that the buying bank, which "supposedly" did everyone the favor of buying a decrepit bank with 40 billion in stale real estate assets (a business-bursting inheritance, or so they claimed,) and are about to hit SAN shareholders with a capital expansion, went up 2%.

that sucks, but your friend should realize that this is a very real risk (losing everything) if you invest in individual stocks. I am, however, sad to hear about his situation.

I've been using a site called betterment.comI'm trying to learn about investing Each week I put 25 dollars in my betterment accountI have 133 dollars invested and it says I have made $2.35. A 2.3% return.And I have .2 cents in dividends

Your personal finance guide to investing money, retirements, saving and budgeting, buying a home, managing credit and debt, and texes or more. The stocks bound mutual funds learn about different options for investing your money and saving for retirement. The browse our entire for dummies online collection and find the perfect how to book for you. personal finance step by step guide for planning and management investing, retirement planning, insurance, real estate, loans and credits.

Typical stock broker/investment advisor platitudes when the market takes a dive. They say the same shit every time.

Make sure you include the fees, expenses and commissions these fuckers charge... some can be very expensive and over time they end up eating a large chunk of your money.

Didn't bother to watch video - but if you want to avoid excessive fees and commission just buy low-cost index funds. Vanguard springs to mind. Lump sum purchase (or dollar cost average a portion of your salary each month) into a Vanguard portfolio. Rinse and repeat until you can safely live off a 4% draw-down each year.

Didn't bother to watch video - but if you want to avoid excessive fees and commission just buy low-cost index funds. Vanguard springs to mind. Lump sum purchase (or dollar cost average a portion of your salary each month) into a Vanguard portfolio. Rinse and repeat until you can safely live off a 4% draw-down each year.

Didn't bother to watch video - but if you want to avoid excessive fees and commission just buy low-cost index funds. Vanguard springs to mind. Lump sum purchase (or dollar cost average a portion of your salary each month) into a Vanguard portfolio. Rinse and repeat until you can safely live off a 4% draw-down each year.

I'm waiting to sell my cryptos when the market recovers (god willing :-[ ) then I'm going to just do this.

they have been around for a long time. The video is worth watching. They also discuss drawbacks of investing in the SaaS stocks, including the high valuations for most of these stocks and the small competitors emerging on the scene.

they have been around for a long time. The video is worth watching. They also discuss drawbacks of investing in the SaaS stocks, including the high valuations for most of these stocks and the small competitors emerging on the scene.

They may have been around a long time...but I do not think very much of the organization...they seem like a "Multi Level Marketing" scheme...

Muscle Maker Grill, the healthy fast-food franchise, has filed registration documents with federal regulators to raise at least $7 million in an initial public offering.

The Burleson, Texas-based company, which has struggled with operating losses for years, plans to use the funds “for general corporate purposes.”

The potential IPO comes just two years after Muscle Maker failed to generate any interest in its Regulation A+ mini IPO. The company at the time hoped to raise $20 million with its offering, but instead raised less than $150,000.

Mini IPOs are less restrictive than traditional IPOs. They’re traditionally reserved for companies that don’t have access to traditional IPO markets that depend on larger, institutional investors.

That makes Muscle Maker’s IPO step unusual, to say the least.

The financial challenges that likely doomed Muscle Maker’s initial effort are still there. The company is struggling with weak sales and increasing costs. It has been closing locations and can’t make money on its existing operations. Now it is banking on delivery, and the high fees that come with it, to generate more sales.

Muscle Maker operates 39 locations in 14 states, plus two in Kuwait. Franchisees operate all but eight of them. But it operated 53 locations two years ago and has faced lawsuits over closed locations.

The company focuses on “healthy-inspired, high-quality, made-to-order, lean, protein-based meals,” including chicken, seafood, pasta, burgers, wraps and flatbreads, along with salads, protein shakes and smoothies.

Muscle Maker is planning aggressive franchise growth, particularly in nontraditional locations such as military bases.

It has big plans for delivery. Some franchise locations in urban areas get as much as 80% of their sales that way. But the costs are steep: up to 25%. “Our cost structure will need to be adjusted to reflect a different pricing model, portion sizes, menu offerings, and other considerations to potentially offset these rising costs of delivery,” the company said in its IPO filing.

Muscle Maker’s financial losses have led to questions about its ability to continue operating. Auditors have given it a “going concern” warning, suggesting “substantial doubt” about its viability.

Revenues are down 20%, to just $3.7 million, in the first nine months of 2019. It reported a net loss of $5.4 million, though that was an improvement over the $6.7 million loss in the same period a year ago.

The company has less than $2 million in cash and has a working capital deficit of $5.5 million. Its accumulated deficit is nearly $30 million.

Muscle Maker has made some improvements more recently. In the third quarter ended Sept. 30, the company generated $1.1 million in revenues, up more than 6% over the same period a year ago. Yet it still finished with a wider, $1.4 million operating loss in the period and a net loss of $2.3 million, more than double its net loss in the same period a year ago.

Same-store sales were not available, but they are down so far in 2019 and were down in 2018. Muscle Maker is hoping that marketing, new menu initiatives and improved speed of service will improve that number.

They’ll need to improve, too. Food and beverage costs at company locations were 41.3% of sales in the third quarter, up 430 basis points from the same period a year ago. Labor costs were 42.3%, up 530 basis point. Rent was 11.8% of sales. “Other restaurant operating expenses” were 13.8%, up 500 basis points.

Much of the increase in costs was associated with the company’s acquisition of a pair of franchisee-owned locations. Still, add all these costs up and the restaurants are at a deficit of 9.2%.

All of these losses are putting considerable pressure on the company to raise sales. But even if it can quickly increase revenues, it needs to raise cash. Thus, the IPO.

Muscle Maker needs to raise $350,000 by the end of December to “satisfy the company’s monthly expenses and continue in operation.”

To fund its plan for 2020, the company needs to raise “a minimum” of $5.75 million.

“Our inability to raise capital could require us to significantly curtail or terminate our operations,” Muscle Maker said in its filing.

A major reason Buffett keeps cash on hand is for redemptions when investors sell B-H stock. If the market crashes many investors will dump the stock. Buffett doesn't want to have to sell B-H investments to fund redemptions. He needs liquidity to do that. Same reason people should have an emergency fund to pay for things like a new furnace or medical bills that occur randomly.

As of 8/2019 B-H had total assets of $707 billion with $122 billion in cash. 122/707 = 17% cash 83% other assets.

Is your investment plan strategy-based, or more of a "shoot-from-the-hip" kind of thing?

My investment plan is mainly strategy based. I don't like the swings of having 100% stocks. It makes it hard for me to sleep at night having that kind of risk. I might make more money by having 100% stocks, but it is too emotionally draining for me when the market is going down a lot, like it was the case in november and december 2019.

My previous response was however not a complete picture of my holdings.

I have some real estate investments and I also have some investments in consumer loan portfolios, which is generating around 11% return annually.

My investment plan is mainly strategy based. I don't like the swings of having 100% stocks. It makes it hard for me to sleep at night having that kind of risk. I might make more money by having 100% stocks, but it is too emotionally draining for me when the market is going down a lot, like it was the case in november and december 2019.

My previous response was however not a complete picture of my holdings.

I have some real estate investments and I also have some investments in consumer loan portfolios, which is generating around 11% return annually.

Thanks for the reply.

I've encountered lots of recent recommendations from leading investment advisors that incorporate dividing asset allocations by risk. Tony Robbins frequently features input from Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates, who takes his "formula" a bit further by considering the inverse relationship certain stimulus have on different investment products, like stocks and bonds.

I don't imagine that the whole Corona virus panic will help. Markets and city streets in the far East are ghost towns.

Seems all the "market expert" articles I read are all over the place with this: including trillion-dollar hedge fund directors.

The coronavirus nature is a bit different from the past several epidemics in recent history. It's not as deadly, but more easily contracted. There's still debate if the World Health Organization will declare a global state of emergency.

I believe that the virus is certainly playing "a" factor, but I think the factor has yet to be definitively identified.

'The report, based on “a nationally representative sample of individual- and household-level debt and credit records drawn from anonymized Equifax credit data,” noted that total household debt is now nominally $1.5 trillion higher than the pre-recession peak of $12.68 trillion in the third quarter of 2008.'

I don’t even really know what my money is invested in, I leave that to my folks at BB&T. I’m 38, nowhere near retirement so I don’t watch it too much. This past year I made some money. I put in almost $27,000 and made an additional $33,000. So it’s worth $60k more at 2019 year end than 2018 year end. It’s not enough to live or draw off of, so I really don’t pay attention to it. I had some money I put in back in 2000 when my grandfather died, and I watch it grow by a third in the first year then die with the dot com bubble burst. It took eight years for it to get back to what it was when I put it in so I cashed out and used it as a down payment on a house. I started from scratch January 2008.

Banks are in my experience among the worst places to invest your money.

38 is no longer young. Time is necessary to compound your money.

Educate yourself.

BB&T/Scott & Stringfellow. Not the actual bank but their investments arm. I deal with some good folks there who’ve made me some money. But, you’re right, I need to get better educated. I never read the prospectus and rarely attend the dinner meetings/seminars I get invited to. I should probably start but time is precious so I rely on them to be the experts.

I'm 37. I've been investing for 15 years. It took me about 7 years of trading to realize i would be much better off emotionally and financially if I passively invested my money. Since 2012 I've been buying a basket of ETF's (IVV, QQQ, DVY, SCHD) and a couple mutual funds that I like(FBIOX, FOCPX and FPBFX). I'm heavily weighted in the S&P. Right now I'm probably 70% stocks 5% bonds and 25% cash. I maybe have 5-7% exposure to international or emerging market equities I make my buys once a month. Occasionally, If i think the market is oversold, i will make an additional monthly purchase. I'm holding a big cash position which sucks when the S&P is up 30% in a year, but I also look for rental properties I can scoop up and I want to have the flexibility. The market is also in some crazy territory and that scares me a little too. I don't try to time the market. I make my buys regardless of whether the market is up or down that day.

I'm 37. I've been investing for 15 years. It took me about 7 years of trading to realize i would be much better off emotionally and financially if I passively invested my money. Since 2012 I've been buying a basket of ETF's (IVV, QQQ, DVY, SCHD) and a couple mutual funds that I like(FBIOX, FOCPX and FPBFX). I'm heavily weighted in the S&P. Right now I'm probably 70% stocks 5% bonds and 25% cash. I maybe have 5-7% exposure to international or emerging market equities I make my buys once a month. Occasionally, If i think the market is oversold, i will make an additional monthly purchase. I'm holding a big cash position which sucks when the S&P is up 30% in a year, but I also look for rental properties I can scoop up and I want to have the flexibility. The market is also in some crazy territory and that scares me a little too. I don't try to time the market. I make my buys regardless of whether the market is up or down that day.

Similar to what my wife and I do in that we like to have some cash around for rentals. Would love to purchase a mobile home park at some point.

for those with some play money.. Sunpower.. Fluctuates between $7 and $14. mainly between 8 and 11. If you time these you can make some good money. Don't take my word for it. Just watch it for a few months. I usually have my buy set at $7.50 and sell at $12 but anything between that is pretty safe

for those with some play money.. Sunpower.. Fluctuates between $7 and $14. mainly between 8 and 11. If you time these you can make some good money. Don't take my word for it. Just watch it for a few months. I usually have my buy set at $7.50 and sell at $12 but anything between that is pretty safe

I don't think there is a minimum. It's what you can afford to play with. I just put $5K in it Friday morning for my wife. It's up 26% since then. That's not typical. I caught it at $4.65 It's getting close to $6 now. This virus has screwed up it's normal fluctuation so it's new to me on how high it will go before it starts coming down again. I'm going to retract my earlier post because I just don't have the confidence I did then. I don't mind gambling my money and especially the wife's money :) but I'd hate someone else to lose on something I suggested

Edit**up 42.07% as of today. 4/14 after 6 days. She got pretty lucky, Her $5K is now $7070

I don't think there is a minimum. It's what you can afford to play with. I just put $5K in it Friday morning for my wife. It's up 26% since then. That's not typical. I caught it at $4.65 It's getting close to $6 now. This virus has screwed up it's normal fluctuation so it's new to me on how high it will go before it starts coming down again. I'm going to retract my earlier post because I just don't have the confidence I did then. I don't mind gambling my money and especially the wife's money :) but I'd hate someone else to lose on something I suggested

Missed the point of the post and regurgitated the same thing 007 said.

If you want to tap into your 401K and take advantage of penalty free options, have at it. I stated my opinion on it. My philosophy worked for me. It might not be the case for every situation out there. During my career while I was building my retirement fund, I encountered situations where it was tempting to access my savings, one occasion was after a divorce. Starting over was a financial struggle and it would have been easy to dip into my retirement but I chose to struggle through it and discovered most "emergencies" are temporary and can be solved in other ways. Fast forward to 2016 and because I didn't draw from my account and it was allowed to grow exponentially, I could comfortably retire at 53. But again, I am no expert, I just know what worked for me and what the majority of financial advisers will say. If you disagree, no heartburn here.

Is it still worth investing in crypto? I mean the current situation in the world is unpredictable and it's really difficult to manage investments. Personally, I stopped investing and just wait for better times. The only way I earn bitcoins now is by playing bitcoin gambling sites. By the way, if you are interested in too, here is the list of reliable sites https://casinobetsites.com/ (https://casinobetsites.com/)

Corporate profits will be up now that all the deadwood employees have been cut.

Yeah, maybe...for some companies...for one quarter. Then what?

The demand destruction will be breathtaking when(if) they stop sending out this free money to people.

If the new normal is sending people a couple grand a month to sit in their apt and watch netflix that would be the biggest seizure of power by the govt and corps ever imagined. Middle class destroyed, totally.

The market is always forward looking. The huge drop was the anticipation of the current jobs numbers and the rally is off improving health data and anticipating states reopening. Think of when companies report earnings and solidly beat their profit and revenue numbers, but the outlook isn’t positive. The stock usually sells off hard. It’s not as crazy as it looks.